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What happened to Rachel Riley?
By Claire Swinarski. 2023
In this engrossing and inventive contemporary middle grade novel that's Where'd You Go Bernadette? with a MeToo message, an eighth…
grader uses social media posts, passed notes, and other clues to find out why a formerly popular girl is now the pariah of her new school. Anna Hunt may be the new girl at East Middle School, but she can already tell there's something off about her eighth-grade class. Rachel Riley, who just last year was one of the most popular girls in school, has become a social outcast. But no one, including Rachel Riley herself, will tell Anna why. As a die-hard podcast enthusiast, Anna knows there's always more to a story than meets the eye. So she decides to put her fact-seeking skills to the test and create her own podcast around the question that won't stop running through her head: What happened to Rachel Riley? With the entire eighth grade working against her, Anna dives headfirst into the evidence. Clue after clue, the mystery widens, painting an even more complex story than Anna could have anticipated. But there's one thing she's certain of: If you're going to ask a complicated question, you better be prepared for the fallout that may come with the answer.
Vera Wong's unsolicited advice for murderers
By Jesse Q. Sutanto. 2023
Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady—ah, lady of a certain age—who lives above her forgotten tea shop in…
the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?
Epic Ellisons: Cosmos Camp
By Lamar Giles. 2023
From Edgar Award nominee and WNDB cofounder Lamar Giles, this middle grade adventure stars the Epic Ellison twins as they…
race to solve the mystery of Cosmos Camp for young geniuses in a stand-alone companion to the Legendary Alston Boys series.School’s out, and Wiki and Leen Ellison are facing a new challenge… their first summer apart! Genius inventor Leen has been accepted to Petey Thunkle’s world-famous summer training program for STEM prodigies with their eyes on the stars. Meanwhile, Wiki is looking forward to her first summer on her own, running the family corn stand and outclassing Otto and Sheed Alston.But the night before Leen’s departure, the twins find out that Wiki has also been accepted into the same camp (even though she didn’t apply). And they are... not thrilled. This summer was never supposed to be a Twin Thing! The situation soon goes from bad to worse—because the Ellisons haven’t been invited just to participate in the program.They’re there to solve a mystery.Someone (or something) has been tampering with the company’s upcoming big-deal rocket launch. Now, the sisters are undercover, dealing with hyper-competitive campers by day and trying to stop the mysterious saboteur by night.All is not as it seems at PeteyTech. There are bigger, badder forces at play than the girls could’ve imagined. And if Wiki and Leen don’t get their act together fast, their first epic adventure away from Logan County could end up an epic fail... for the entire world.
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
By Jesse Q. Sutanto. 2023
A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery…
by Jesse Q. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties.Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady—ah, lady of a certain age—who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco&’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing—a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn&’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?
The Jules Verne Prophecy (Jules Verne Prophecy #1)
By Larry Schwarz, Iva-Marie Palmer. 2023
When a mysterious book by the legendary writer Jules Verne falls into the hands of three unlikely friends, it sets…
off a treasure hunt like no other—get ready for a modern-day reimagining of The Goonies! Owen Godfrey is spending his summer in Paris studying science fiction writer Jules Verne, the brilliant mind behind Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days. When Owen and his new friends find what appears to be a dusty copy of Verne&’s collected works in an old bookshop, they&’re intrigued by the hidden codes written inside. As one clue leads to another, the trio gets swept up in an epic treasure hunt spanning the city—from the depths of the catacombs to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and by way of skateboard, boat, car, and even a hot air balloon! But they quickly realize they&’re not the only ones searching for the hidden riches, and that there are others who will stop at nothing to get to them first. This fast-paced larger-than-life adventure is filled with action, high stakes, and three friends who are dead set on cracking the Jules Verne mystery."A fabulous adventure that reads like a dream vacation." —Sarah Ferguson "A wild acton-filled tale that lets readers use their brains to solve a fantastical mystery!" —David Mendel "[An] epic adventure with laugh-out-loud humor and genuine middle-grade heart." Micol Ostow
Lowdown Road
By Scott Von Doviak. 2023
One of &“The Most Wanted Crime Novels of 2023&” — Crimefictionlover.comJoin a heart-racing road trip across 1970s America as two…
cousins make the heist of their lives and must avoid the cops and criminals hot on their tails.It&’s the summer of &’74…Richard Nixon has resigned from office, CB radios are the hot new thing, and in the great state of Texas two cousins hatch a plan to drive $1 million worth of stolen weed to Idaho, where some lunatic is gearing up to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle. But with a vengeful sheriff on their tail and the revered and feared marijuana kingpin of Central Texas out to get his stash back, Chuck and Dean are in for the ride of their lives – if they can make it out alive…Scott Von Doviak, longtime pop-culture journalist for The A.V. Club, Film Threat, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, made a splash with his debut novel, CHARLESGATE CONFIDENTIAL, which Stephen King called &“terrific&” and &“a fun machine…the white-knuckle kind.&” With LOWDOWN ROAD, he cements his reputation for pedal-to-the-metal storytelling that also makes you think about just who we are and where our darker roads might lead us.
What Happened to Rachel Riley?
By Claire Swinarski. 2023
In this engrossing and inventive contemporary middle grade novel that's Where'd You Go Bernadette? with a #MeToo message, an eighth…
grader uses social media posts, passed notes, and other clues to find out why a formerly popular girl is now the pariah of her new school. Anna Hunt may be the new girl at East Middle School, but she can already tell there’s something off about her eighth-grade class. Rachel Riley, who just last year was one of the most popular girls in school, has become a social outcast. But no one, including Rachel Riley herself, will tell Anna why. As a die-hard podcast enthusiast, Anna knows there’s always more to a story than meets the eye. So she decides to put her fact-seeking skills to the test and create her own podcast around the question that won’t stop running through her head: What happened to Rachel Riley? With the entire eighth grade working against her, Anna dives headfirst into the evidence. Clue after clue, the mystery widens, painting an even more complex story than Anna could have anticipated. But there’s one thing she’s certain of: If you’re going to ask a complicated question, you better be prepared for the fallout that may come with the answer.
Small Town Sins: A Novel
By Ken Jaworowski. 2023
EDGAR AWARD FINALISTKen Jaworowski’s Small Town Sins is a gripping Rust Belt thriller that captures the characters of a down-and-out…
Pennsylvania town, revealing their troubled pasts and the crimes that could cost them their lives.In Locksburg, Pennsylvania, a former coal and steel town whose best days seem long past, five thousand residents have toughed it out, and have reasons for both worry and hope as this neglected place teeters between decay and renewal. For some of them, their biggest troubles have just arrived. After years of just scraping by, three restless souls have their lives upended: Nathan, a volunteer fireman who uncovers a secret stash of money in a burning building and takes it; Callie, a nurse whose tender patient may not have long to live, despite the girl’s fundamentalist parents’ ardent beliefs; and Andy, a recovering heroin addict who undertakes a nightmare mission to hunt down and stop a serial predator.Before long, Nathan’s stolen riches threaten to destroy everyone around him as he tries to cover his haphazard trail of lies. Callie risks her career to grant her young patient a final, and likely illegal, wish. And Andy’s hunger for vigilante justice becomes a fierce obsession that may end in violence.As their stories barrel toward unexpected ends, Nathan, Callie, and Andy struggle to endure—or escape. They each face their pasts and gamble on their futures, and confront the underside of their rough Rust Belt town. Riveting, evocative, and unforgettable, Small Town Sins is a debut novel that marks the arrival of a major new talent.